UN Ambassador Susan Rice Withdraws Her Name from Consideration for Secretary of State

BREAKING NEWS: Ambassador Susan Rice withdraws her name from consideration for US Secretary of State. John McCain and Lindsey Graham have prevailed in a round about way. In a letter to President Obama, she expressed sadness that the process had become tainted by partisan politics.

“If nominated, I am now convinced that the confirmation process would be lengthy, disruptive and costly – to you and to our most pressing national and international priorities,” Rice wrote in a letter to President Obama, saying she’s saddened by the partisan politics surrounding her prospects.

“That trade-off is simply not worth it to our country…Therefore, I respectfully request that you no longer consider my candidacy at this time,” she wrote in the letter obtained by NBC News.

President Obama issued a statement saying he accepts Susan Rice’s decision to remove her name from consideration for the position.

Yeah, but neither made to the nomination, thank goodness. Edwards was a close call!!! Made Free Willy look like a choir boy. Sort of.

After Palin, and she got 48 million votes remember, anything is possible even a Clinton/Rice ticket.

Momzworld

Oh please! Not Charlie Crist!

zephyr

A couple bitter old white, male partisans got their way. So much for them to be proud about.

dduck

Z, if it were only those two, then Obama would not have told her to drop out. Any doubt about that?

cjjack

I don’t really have an opinion one way or another about whether Rice would have made a good Secretary of State, because she hadn’t even been nominated yet.

And that’s the thing that really bothers me.

The administration indicated that Rice might be the nominee, and was at least on the short list, but a couple of Senators indicated that IF that was the case, they were ready to do anything in their power to stop the confirmation of the nominee.

What’s in their power? The filibuster.

As it stands now, all a Senator needs to do in order to block a piece of legislation or a nominee is to state that they’re going to filibuster the thing in question when it comes to the floor of the Senate.

But this is another layer of absurdity. Before a nominee is even chosen…long before it reaches the Senate floor, a couple of determined Senators can stop it by merely expressing a desire to eventually filibuster.

Essentially, they’re saying that the only nominees that can be debated on the Senate floor are those which everyone agrees upon already.

KP

dduck’s got it right. There were enough signs on the left a Rice nomination wasn’t going to fly. Clinton made it pretty clear she wants Kerry. The hardest hitting review of Rice’s character came from the left in the form of Dana Millbank (WaPo) and Maureen Dowd (NYT). As well, the over reaching claims of racism or the war on women from the old boys club on the right was misplaced. Rice would have been the 5th non white male Sec State. Remember Larry Eagleburger?! That was 20 years ago.

zephyr

Sure dd, there were more than two. So what? Rice was mostly the victim of a partisan witch hunt. There is nothing to feel good about in that. She did the right thing by bowing out, but she was put into that position by people who should be ashamed of themselves.

KP

Rice was put in an untenable position and has been used for cover. For that, I feel badly for her. She has also been used by the right to put the screws to Obama and Clinton. Again, very unfortunate and political hardball at it’s worst/best.

I wonder if her name withdrawl is tied in anyway to Clinton’s scheduled testimony next week. It’s going to go something like this if it goes at all: “I can’t discuss that due to the fact that it is part of an ongoing police investigation.”

dduck

Rice was put in the pressure cooker for too long. A schmoo for the politicians to setup for cover and ultimately sacrificed on the altar of the “it’s for the best”.